US judge blocks Trump order banning foreign students at Harvard University

A federal judge on Friday blocked US President Donald Trump's attempt to ban Harvard University from keeping their international students. 

Earlier in the day, Harvard sued the Trump administration in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts, after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked its ability to enrol foreign students, the Associated Press reported.

The revocation meant that new students could not be enrolled, and current students would have to transfer to another university to maintain legal status in the country.

The Ivy League school sought an immediate, temporary block to the order, calling it unconstitutional, according to the court filing. 

The government's decision left students scrambling to figure out how to maintain an academic role in the US while maintaining their legal status in the country.

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard," the university had said in the filing, adding that there are 7,000 visa holders studying at the institution. 

“With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission."

The government's move would also have blocked thousands of incoming students starting the academic year in September - something Harvard said would harm its institution and even the country, as the world's top talent decides to go elsewhere for fear of US government reprisals.

The allegations

On Thursday, a DHS press release said Harvard’s leadership "has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment".

"Many of these agitators are foreign students," it continued, adding that the university has also been colluding with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), "including hosting and training members of a CCP paramilitary group complicit in the Uyghur genocide".

DHS said it provided the university with the evidence of these allegations more than one month ago and has since also terminated $2.7m in grants to Harvard. 

"Instead of protecting its students, Harvard has let crime rates skyrocket, enacted racist DEI practices, and accepted boatloads of cash from foreign governments and donors," the statement said.

DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, a Biden administration-promoted policy in the wake of the infamous police killing of a Black man, George Floyd, five years ago this month. 

Tensions have been escalating between the Trump administration and several Ivy League universities for weeks, much of it stemming from the rise of pro-Palestine protests across campuses in 2024, and the increasing number of faculty criticising Israel. 

The playbook the White House is believed to be using - Project Esther - says criticism of Israel is antisemitism, and that antisemitism must be rooted out at all costs, including the deportation of foreign students and the withdrawal of funding to academic institutions. 

Earlier this month, Harvard president Alan Garber wrote in a letter to the Trump administration that the university "will not surrender its core, legally-protected principles out of fear of unfounded retaliation by the federal government".

Harvard, he added, is "not an arm of [a] political party or movement. Nor will it ever be".

"Harvard is a place to bring people of all backgrounds together to learn in an inclusive environment where ideas flourish regardless of whether they are deemed 'conservative,' ‘liberal,’ or something else, a place where assumptions and claims are tested and challenged, respectfully and thoughtfully, in pursuit of knowledge and truth," Garber said. 

He added that the university has taken steps to fight antisemitism on its campus. 

Six weeks earlier, in what appeared to be a bid to appease the Trump administration, Harvard fired the heads of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies for allegedly failing to include more Israeli perspectives in their work. 

middleeasteye.net